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Treaty of Vega
The Treaty of Vega was the document that ended the war between the Centauri Republic and the Terran Hegemony. The treaty was signed on February 1, 2107 and ratified by the Terran Senate and the Centauri Centaurum. It would be ironic that the treaty was the start to a Golden Age for the Terran Hegemony that saw the nation grow rapidly in size. Treaty Provisions The most loathsome (at least to Terran sensibilities) part of the Treaty of Vega was the provision that the Terran Hegemony could not build Battleships or Dreadnoughts for their Navy. Oddly enough, the treaty did not restrict the production of Carriers (a provision that was excluded by choice by the Terran diplomats). Restricted to Cruiser sized ships, the HAF Navy was more than eager to work out a deal to incorporate the newer technologies available to the nation following the ratification of the treaty. Other parts of the treaty included: *Trade concessions *Technology transfers *Territory Trade Concessions Trade was one of the largest concessions wrought by the Treaty of Vega between the Centauri Republic and the Terran Hegemony. Foodstuffs were the primary source of the initial trade between the two nations. Other luxury items, namely spirits of all types, became part of the trade agreements. Grain production methods were included as several of the Centauri worlds were marginally habitable and Terran worlds produced far more grain than they could use. Technology Transfers Another point of contention was the technology proviso of the Treaty of Vega. The Terran Hegemony had captured numerous examples of Centauri warships and various weaponry. The Centauri allowed the Hegemony to retain control over the weapons technology and ship designs by legitimizing their possessions as official "spoils of war." This was done when the Hegemony threatened to begin selling Centauri weaponry and other pieces of technology over the "open" arms market. The Centauri backed down and agreed to allow the Hegemony to continue production of the Ion Cannons and their Battle Lasers (particle cannons), but only on Terran ships. The Terran idea of using multiple rotating barrels on their PPC systems would be copied by the Centauri, but as a melding of their Ion Cannon technology. While the Terrans offered up their coilgun technology to the Centauri, it was refused as it was too close in design to the Orieni's Gauss weaponry. The Mark I Interceptor Grid was of high interest to the Centauri and the integration of the unit on the new Hyperion/''Morado'' would remain the high water mark of cooperation between the Centauri and the Hegemony. Terran technologies like their fin-less gravitic drive system was one piece of Terran technology that was highly coveted by the Centauri. As it was compatible with the reactor system, it was included, but the more powerful Terran reactors were not. While Centauri ships could now be built without the fragile drive fins (unlike other races like the Minbari or even the Vorlons), their speed and acceleration would lag behind comparable Terran designs. In the same vein, the more powerful Gravitically Enhanced Plasma Engines would become a joint venture between the Centauri and the Hegemony and would be a centerpiece on the Hyperion/''Morado'' Cruiser that resulted from the Treaty. The different technologies in the form of the Jump Drive technology precluded their use on Terran ships, but the overall design was refined several times and then given as "open source" technology to the Terran people. It was the height of irony that the Centauri actually purchased their Jump Drive technology that had been repurposed by several Hegemony companies. The more compact drive system made use of an allotrope of Quantium-40 (named Naquada after a popular metal on a TV series) that required users to purchase the material from the Hegemony. Compact fusion reactors of a Centauri origin were also modified and sold with the Jump Drive and many Centauri firms purchased this technology (along with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds). Territory The one proviso of the Treaty of Vega that was held secretly by the Centauri and the Hegemony was that the territory of House Refa would be given as recompense by the Centauri Republic to the Terran Hegemony for the actions of House Refa in starting the war. A large section of territory was negotiated away to the Terran Hegemony and allowed the nation to build up quickly. Since the Hegemony used a Jump Drive technology that was not the "commonly" available system in the galaxy, the vast space held many jewels for them. Using not only those worlds that had a Centauri Jump Gate, but also those worlds that Terran Jump Drives could transit to the Hegemony gained a large amount of territory. The pull back by Centauri forces was done as the Republic was dealing with internal pressures caused by decadence creeping into their society. The pull back by the Centauri allowed them to deal with the societal pressures and actually prevented a Civil War from erupting. The pull back had an unintended side effect of several Centauri citizens being willing to join the Terran Hegemony as the Hegemony took control over the former Centauri territory. The new territory would encompass a large amount of space with the Hegemony extending as a border area "between" the forming League of Non-Aligned Worlds and Centauri space. Consequences The massive territorial gains of the Terran Hegemony caused the nation to go through a number of boom years. Known as a Golden Century of development, the century following the war with the Centauri allowed the Hegemony to grow strong and allowed the nation to emerge as a mercantile power. Staunchly isolationist, the League of Non-Aligned Worlds tried and failed numerous times to gain Terran technologies (aside from those technologies that were previously Centauri in origin and later sold off to all interested parties). Greater ties with the Centauri Republic allowed for numerous partnerships to develop that allowed for large quantities of consumer goods and a great deal of hard currency to come into the Hegemony. Bureau 13 continued to expand their use of new technologies and numerous warships and other technologies were built to feature these new systems. The creation of numerous Babylon Stations also paved the way for diplomacy to flourish in the Hegemony. Despite the presence of the Babylon Stations many nations remained wary of the power of the Terran Hegemony and relations remained cool with most of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds (an enmity that would extend until the League was later disbanded following the Dilgar War). The Hegemony would emerge from the Golden Century as a major power that went on to defeat the Dilgar without any assistance from the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. This would lead to the bitter enmity between the Hegemony and the Brakiri Syndicracy because of Brakiri actions over the Dilgar Imperium world of Mitoc. The Hegemony would later house the Dilgar Prisoners of War who were tried at a Tribunal for War Crimes and would fend off numerous attempts by the League nations to capture the prisoners. Author's Perspective You either love or hate this part of the story. People have come down on each side of it and has been a major point of contention from readers. Here is my rationale (it is my story after all :P): look at two "modern" day treaties that have been oft discussed as being useless in some form. Both the Washington Naval Treaty and the Treaty of Versailles have been derided in many forums. Both treaties were not liked and most of the provisions of both treaties were ignored by the signatory nations. i.e. Germany was restricted to no Battleships and yet they built several Pocket Battleships/Battle Cruisers (Admiral Graf von Spee and Scharnhorst) in effect voiding the Washington Naval Treaty. The other example is that the USA signed the Treaty of Versailles, but did not uphold the restrictions on weapons on the battlefield (the best example is that the USA still made use of shotguns in combat), Treaties are a part of the affairs of state and the Treaty of Vega came at the right time in the story and was a literary example of forwarding the story instead of getting bogged down in a meaningless war that was shaping up to be curbstomp (fun to read at times, but utterly unrealistic at the best of times).